The present invention relates to loading and storage of boats in boathouses and, more particularly, to an apparatus for use with a boathouse for loading a boat from a body of water into the interior of the boathouse for storage therein.
Storing a boat, particularly a small pleasure craft, in a safe and secure manner often requires that the boat be removed from the water and placed in a location sheltered from storms and tides. Periodically, a boat must be removed from the water to allow for maintenance of the exterior of the hull. Conventional boathouses for storing boats out of the water often have bulky hoisting mechanisms for lifting a boat vertically out of the water and placing it within a protective superstructure. Commonly, little or no use is made of the motive power of the boat to be stored to assist in removing a boat from the water. A boathouse that has no floor or bottom above the surface of the water in which it is placed cannot effectively use the motive power of a boat to assist in storing the boat within the boathouse. Moreover, boathouses that have no floor for supporting a boat in drydock require constant use of hoisting apparatus to maintain the boat above the water.
Boathouses that do have a floor or other bottom support structure must overcome two problems in order to be effective in storing boats and sheltering them from the elements. First, the boathouse superstructure must be capable of rising and falling with the variation of the surface level of the body of water in which it is located. Second, the position of the boathouse floor relative to surface level of the body of water should be relatively constant so that any apparatus for loading a boat into the boathouse can be utilized within some small angle of operation, thereby minimizing the forces required to drydock the boat within the boathouse.
Conventionally, mechanisms for hoisting a boat out of the water and storing the boat in drydock within a superstructure include sets of pulleys mounted on an overhead support system. The pulleys and overhead support system must be capable of accommodating the full dead weight of the boat to be stored in drydock. A small pleasure craft having a V-shaped bottom must be stored using overhead support lines unless the bottom support is shaped so that it accommodates the V-shaped bottom and resists the normal tipping action of the drydocked boat.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to allow for the use of the motive power of a boat to assist in loading the boat out of the water and into a boathouse for security from weather and vandals.
Another object of this invention is to reduce the hoisting forces required to load a boat out of the water and into a boathouse.
Yet another object of this invention is to alleviate the necessity of using external power other than a small winch or other loading or holding mechanism.
Still another object of the present invention is to minimize the difficulty of loading a boat out of the water and into a boathouse by the use of a new loading mechanism.
Another object of this invention is to allow for loading and unloading of a boat into and out of a floating boathouse situated on guide poles by means of slip rings.
Yet another object is to allow a single person to load and unload a boat in reduced time.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention are set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part are obvious from the description or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the articles and apparatus particularly pointed out in the appended claims.
To achieve the foregoing objects, and in accordance with the purposes of the invention as broadly described herein, the boathouse loading device of the present invention for loading a boat out of a body of water and into a boathouse, using in part the motive power of the boat, comprises (1) a carriage adapted for receiving the hull of a boat, the carriage being pivotable about a horizontal axis located near an edge of the floor of the boathouse to allow an end of the carriage to dip below the surface of the water, the carriage being slidable forward and backward along a line perpendicular to the horizontal axis, and the carriage comprising (a) a channel frame, (b) a plurality of rollers spaced along the channel frame between the sides of the channel and adapted for rolling the hull of a boat over the channel frame, (c) outriggers, comprising outrigger guides, outrigger supports, and outrigger rollers, the said outriggers being attached to the channel frame for stabilizing a boat rolled onto the channel frame and for stabilizing the channel frame on the floor of the boathouse, (d) a tensionable, counterweighted latching mechanism for latching the channel frame to inhibit forward sliding of the channel frame, and capable of being unlatched by backward sliding of the channel frame, (e) tensionable rods for providing lateral support to the channel frame to inhibit lateral movement of the channel frame, (2) a plurality of guide rollers for slidably guiding the channel frame forward and backward along a line perpendicular to the horizontal axis, and (3) a winch for sliding the channel frame along the guide rollers and for tensioning the latching mechanism into a latched configuration. Preferably, the latching mechanism includes a counterweighted latch member pivotably attached to the channel frame, capable of being aligned with a stop and tensionably engageable with the stop, and also capable of being disengaged from and moved out of alignment with the stop.